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Structured and Unstructured Approach to IT Infrastructure Planning

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The two broad approaches through which IT application can be systematically identified are as follows:

The first step towards planning for IT infrastructure in a business enterprise is systematic identification of applications for better IT infrastructure planning and its integration with the overall busi­ness plans of the enterprise.

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There are two broad approaches to systematic identification of IT applications, the structured and unstructured approaches. The structured approach has gained popularity due to the fact that it is more focused and comprehen­sive. The unstructured approach is also being recognized as an ap­propriate approach in select situations.

1. Structured Approach to IT Infrastructure Planning:

Structured approach to planning IT infrastructure provides a frame­work of the steps that need to be taken for the purpose of planning. It is well-tested and proven approach. As it is structured, it is easy to identify the steps that are involved in the process of planning and the associated costs can be assessed and budgeted. The entire planning process can be monitored for its progress.

A number of planning methods have been suggested in the literature to identify the information system possibilities. Most of these have a long list of successful users and are well documented. In fact, these struc­tured methods of IT planning are very useful for the internal staff to identify the possible areas of applications of IT in an enterprise.

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IBM’s Business System Planning (BSP) and MIT’s Critical Success Factors (CSF) are the two basic planning methods that have gained popularity among designers of IT infrastructure more than ever before. These methods explain the ways to develop IT architecture and to identify conventional information systems which are used primarily for planning and control.

Business system planning method:

BSP was developed when database technology was the in thing and centralised databases formed the basis of information sys­tem. Later, many variants of the method were experimented but the basic approach remained the same.

Using BSP, a rigorous analysis of the operations in the business is undertaken by the managers and a detailed mapping of the business operations is done finally resulting in definition of databases required for the enterprise.

This may be done using the value chain analysis. This technique enables the management to analyse the role informa­tion plays in the industry. Such an analysis identifies the infor­mation needed in the enterprise, where that can come from and how and what information can help the enterprise improve its competitive strength.

Value chain analysis generates information regarding important external and internal business information relationships and issues. From this stage a detailed development plan can be drawn. Generally, the external data requirements are addressed by first following linkages through the primary value chain and its related activities.

The main features of BSP can be summarized as follows:

(1) The IT infrastructure planning is done with participation of managers so as to improve their performance. The level of man­agement addressed is quite high (generally it is general man­ager and above), where the allocation of resources is done across the entire business unit. The approach preferred for this pur­pose is top down. This is done to identify and define valid plan­ning and performance data.

(2) The focus of attention is the information and not the transac­tions or events. The resource allocation is determined by the value of the information generated.

(3) The plan aims to determine the data classes that are required. These data classes serve as building blocks for databases.

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The basic advantage of BSP lies in the fact that managers in­volved in the analysis of the operations get clear understanding of the information systems. Consequently, their commitment to the success of the system is quite high. The main danger involved in the BSP is that it raises the expectations of the participating managers from the IT infrastructure. Another risk associated with BSP is that these managers may get too involved in the analysis of their operations to pay attention to opportunities and threats.

Critical success factors method:

Critical Success Factors (CSF) method was developed by John- F. Rochart at the Centre of Information Systems Research (CISR) at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. This method assumes that information systems must focus on critical success factors as per­ceived by individual managers and provide information and tools for analysis of such information.

The method suggests that data regarding key performance indicators must be gathered from the objectives laid down for each manager and means of analysing such data must be provided by information systems.

The critical success factors, here, would mean and include those, things that must go as planned if the objectives of the organisation are to be achieved. The CSFs are limited in number for each enterprise and individual manager so that they become focus of concentration for all the con­cerned managers.

For example, an educational institution identi­fied as many as 20 different goals for itself before it finally culled them down to following three critical success factors:

i. Relevance

ii. Excellence

iii. Contribution

The institution applied these CSFs to almost every department and its activities, be it teaching or research. The courses that are developed must be relevant to the society, must be developed and taught in the best possible way and teachers must contribute to the literature on the courses.

Similarly, the areas of research project must be relevant, excellence should be the goal of the research ac­tivity and must make contribution to the existing knowledge base of the society on the subject by giving due publicity to the findings of research. The goals of manpower planning are set in the same framework. The CSFs are hierarchical in an enterprise. It should be ensured that the conflict in CSFs are avoided at all levels in the hierarchy. The hierarchy of CSFs can be represented with the help of Fig.5.2.

The CSFs help in assessing the relative significance of activities in terms of their contribution towards the achievement of common goals of the enterprise. This, in turn, would help in establishing priorities for IT projects on the basis of their criticality in achieve­ment of objectives.

The CSF method is a tool for business strategy, but has been successfully used by IT professionals to determine the key areas of developing IT infrastructure. Since CSFs focus on ob­jectives rather than business process, the CSF studies are more effective in identifying information needs of managers than shap­ing the IT infrastructure.

Both these methods have been quite popular in the past. It has been found that BSP method was more suitable in enterprises where the impact of IT on business was high but the diffusion of IT was low. CSF method was more successful in enterprises where the im­pact of IT was low but the diffusion of IT was very high.

In enterprises where the degree of diffusion of IT was high and the impact of IT on business was also high, none of these methods com­pletely served the purpose. With the rapid advances in the technol­ogy and changing expectations from IT infrastructure, more and more companies are now falling in the third category.

IT designers are experimenting with new approaches and even different blends of these basic methodologies are being tried. The blending of vari­ous structured approaches in different proportions as warranted by the business culture will have the advantage of acceptability in the enterprise.

It is also being suggested that these structured meth­ods of planning IT infrastructure may not be suitable and more flexible approach may perhaps be more suitable in dynamic busi­ness environment.

2. Unstructured Approach to IT Infrastructure Planning:

The proponents of unstructured approach argue that the structured approach is a time consuming process and sometimes takes such a long time that the initial opportunities and enthusiasm for the ap­plication is lost. Using information technology as a strategic tool to bar the entry of competitors in the niche markets for the enterprise requires quicker decisions.

The applications for this purpose are criti­cal for survival in the market and are one of the market compulsions. Similarly, there may be other compulsions, such as the captive buyer may insist on availability of IT infrastructure of a particular configu­ration and use of IT infrastructure for given applications.

For exam­ple, some of the leading consumer products multinationals are in the process of prescribing a minimum IT infrastructure for all their dis­tributors in the metropolitan cities. In such cases, it is the business.

Compulsion which may not warrant any structured method for planning IT infrastructure. However, such situations are not common and; most of the enterprises have enough freedom to plan IT infrastruc­ture for themselves on the basis of their perceived information needs.